Texas AG moves to shut down Catholic migrant shelter. Could the same happen in Iowa?

IOWA CITY — Immigrant workers and Catholic charities worry a package of bills being advanced by Iowa Republican lawmakers would criminalize and could lead to the closure of faith-based migrant shelters and civic engagement organizations to house or transport asylum-seekers.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Catholic migrant shelter Annunciation House under similar legislation signed into law in that state to turn over information about the guests they serve.

Annunciation House, a network of shelters that serves migrants, sought relief from the attorney general’s demand to immediately release information about its clients.

The state denied the extension, so the Catholic nonprofit sued the state, requesting a court rule on which documents the group must hand over to the attorney general. Paxton, in response, announced his office was suing the organization for failing to comply with the demand and accused the religious group of engaging in human smuggling and of "worsening illegal immigration."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last year signed a law being challenged as unconstitutional by the Justice Department allowing law enforcement officials to arrest people they suspect of being migrants who crossed into the country illegally. It would also allow judges to order their removal and enlist law enforcement to transport migrants to the border so they can return to Mexico, whether or not that is their country of origin.

Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate have advanced similar legislation.

The Iowa City Catholic Worker House, like Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, helps sponsor and resettle asylum-seekers and provides food, housing, clothing, transportation, accompaniment, and connections to legal assistance, school enrollment, and supportive care.

Both organizations work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security to house people whom the agencies have processed and released, who often have been permitted into the country while they await hearings.

“This is what is at stake in Iowa if lawmakers pass anti-immigrant legislation here,” according to an “action alert” email and online petition sent Thursday to 2,000 Catholic Worker House supporters. “Not only will essential workers with a precarious immigration status be put at even more risk, faith-based groups that serve and organize immigrant workers like Escucha Mi Voz and the Iowa City Catholic Worker will also be targeted.”

A top House Republican said lawmakers amended the bill so as not to apply to churches, charities "or people who in good faith are trying to take care of people."

What would the proposed Iowa immigration bills do?

Senate File 2340 and House File 2567 would make it a state felony to reenter Iowa after being previously deported from the U.S.

State courts would be permitted to order the removal of immigrants arrested under the new state law, and local officials would be given legal immunity when assisting in immigration enforcement measures.

Officers and state agencies would be cleared to transport undocumented migrants to ports of entry to make sure they comply.

Law enforcement officers would not be allowed to arrest or detain an undocumented migrant on the grounds of a public or private school, place of worship, at a health care facility where a migrant is receiving medical treatment or those receiving a medical examination for sexual assault.

State courts also would be prohibited from suspending or interrupting prosecution of someone whose federal immigration status is pending or will be initiated.

House File 2608 would make it a felony to “encourage or induce a person to enter or remain” in the county in violation of federal law by “concealing, harboring, or shielding that person from detection.”

The bill was amended to specify “a person commits the offense of smuggling of persons” if done “knowingly, for payment or some other benefit.”

Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and is the lead Republican on the bill, said the modified language is meant to exempt churches, charities and other nonprofits that provide aid to immigrants and refugees.

“I don’t know that much about the Texas case, other than to say what we’re trying to do is not that,” Holt said. “We’re trying to go after individuals who are smuggling, trafficking people into the country illegally, or into the state illegally. We’re not interested in going after church organizations or anything of that kind.”

Immigrant advocates warn bills violate protections for asylum-seekers

Proponents say the legislation is needed to crack down on increases in fentanyl seizures, drug overdose deaths and human trafficking attributed to illegal immigration issues and a failure of Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and Congress to secure the border and enforce federal immigration laws.

Immigrant rights advocates warn the measures would lead to widespread racial profiling and circumvent protections asylum-seekers have under constitutional law and international obligations.

They also argue Iowa courts and law enforcement are not equipped and lack the training, legal expertise and jurisdiction to handle immigration law and make decisions about a person’s immigration status.

Federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have ruled that immigration laws can only be enforced by the federal government.

"These bills put all Iowans and visitors at risk of profiling while criminalizing and targeting our churches and working-class, immigrant communities,“ according to an online petition by the Iowa City Catholic Worker and Escucha Mi Voz calling on Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird to publicly condemn the bills.

“Catholic social teaching informs us that public policy should welcome the stranger and have a preferential option for the poor,” the petition states. “Anti-immigrant, anti-worker, anti-charity legislation could cost Iowa billions in lost state GDP in just one year. But the true costs to our hardworking immigrant families and faith communities will be incalculable.”

The petition is available at bit.ly/immigrantionpetition.

Iowa governor, attorney general critical of Biden immigration policy

The Iowa Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Gov. Reynolds’ office did not comment directly on the bills moving through the legislative process in the Iowa House and Senate, or the actions of the Texas attorney general.

“Federal law prohibits aiding and abetting human trafficking, illegal entry, and concealing and harboring illegal immigrants,” Reynolds' Deputy Communications Director Kollin Crompton said in a statement to The Gazette. “Helping those in need is a worthy cause, but helping illegal immigrants evade law enforcement is against the law.”

Reynolds recently traveled to the Texas-Mexico border with other GOP governors to urge Biden to combat illegal immigration, and said she is prepared to send more Iowa National Guard soldiers and Iowa State Patrol officers to the border.

Bird has joined multistate lawsuits led by Republican attorneys general across the country challenging the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

The Biden administration has tried to grapple with immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border through various parole programs and processing centers in Central America that encourage an orderly immigration process.

Last year, the administration enacted new policies that carry harsh consequences for migrants who do not follow some of the legal pathways to immigration the U.S. has set up, such as applying for parole programs to live and work in the U.S. while they wait for their asylum claims to be processed in court, and requesting asylum in another country they travel through.

The administration and some immigrant advocacy groups argue it is utilizing the tools available to reduce the chaos at the border as Congress has failed to act on more comprehensive immigration improvements.

Faith-based charities help migrants after border screening

Raziel Argueta, an immigration attorney in Des Moines, said the legislation advanced by Iowa Republican lawmakers even while amended would have a “chilling effect” on charities and nonprofits that help migrants with daily needs — including food, legal services and places to go that aren't city streets — and are vital to an orderly immigration process.

Migrants served by the Iowa City Catholic Worker House have often presented claims for asylum or other immigration relief. Most have waited for months at the U.S.-Mexico border waiting to get “paroled” into the U.S., allowing them to temporarily live and, in most cases, work in the United States without fear of deportation. They have been released to the Catholic Worker House after having been screened and interviewed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and found to have a credible fear of persecution or torture if they return to their home country.

With such requests, DHS requires proof they will have a means of support while in the United States, often requiring that a parolee have a sponsor who agrees to provide financial support for the duration of the parole authorization period. An inability to provide evidence of financial support while in the United States may lead to a denial of parole.

Faith-based charities and nonprofits like Iowa City Catholic Worker House provide that support, as well as supervision, driving refugees and asylum-seekers to required Department of Homeland Security check-ins, to get their fingerprints and biometric data taken to secure work permits, and to immigration and asylum hearings in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Omaha.

“It’s making the system stronger and more effective,” said David Goodner, co-founder of the Catholic Worker House. “So if they start attacking that, they’re eroding the system from working the way it’s supposed to be.”

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Argueta, the Des Moines immigration attorney, agreed.

“It’s not fueling more illegal immigration, it’s allowing people who have already been released by immigration (agencies) to arrive where they’re already headed,” he said. “They’re already going through the parole process and being released. If we want to avoid the chaos in New York and Illinois, where migrants are being bused and dropped off (without access to a support network) and then leaves the city responsible, why attack organizations assisting and preventing that situation?”

Both worry that under the Iowa bills, if passed, the state’s Republican attorney general will do the same as in Texas and request logs identifying people to whom the organization has provided services in an effort to go after immigrants and their support networks

Goodner said the Catholic Worker House currently serves 47 refugees and asylum-seekers living in two houses and a couple of apartments.

“It’s not criminals. It’s not drug dealers,” he said.

The organization also has a database of about 5,000 contacts of immigrant workers in five counties.

“The Texas Attorney General has created a road map for other states to go after immigrants and their support networks,” Goodner said. “Will the Iowa Attorney General come after our database, and how do we protect those individuals and that proprietary, confidential personal information we use to invite them to meetings and vaccination and legal clinics?”

He said Texas is going after the migrant shelter system, “because why pick off one immigrant at a time when you can go after an organization that’s helping hundreds of them?”

Many migrants worked essential jobs during pandemic

Clayton Dimambu is a legal permanent resident from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and an organizer with Escucha Mi Voz.

Dimambu entered the U.S. and came to Iowa under the diversity visa lottery program, which awards up to 50,000 immigrant visas each year to citizens of countries with low immigration rates.

He drives undocumented Congolese refugees to appointments, including to court dates and meetings with immigration lawyers and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-ins. Dimambu worries that should the Iowa Legislature pass similar laws, he could be pulled over and fined or jailed for having undocumented immigrants in his vehicle.

Parole grants entry as they continue their asylum case; however, an individual who is paroled has not been formally admitted into the United States for purposes of immigration law.

Ninoska Campos of Iowa City is an immigrant worker and single mother of two who emigrated with her family from Honduras in 2019 and applied for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. Her husband was deported in 2020.

She works at a hotel, volunteers with the Catholic Worker House to help other families seeking asylum, and helped start the immigrant rights organization Escucha Mi Voz, or “Hear My Voice.”

“The Iowa City Catholic Worker House is one of the strongest tools there is for us here in Johnson County,” Campos said through interpreter Emily Sinnwell, co-founder of Iowa City Catholic Worker House. “… It really is unconditional support that they give out to that immigrant community. … It’s very difficult to just put somebody on the street; somebody that doesn’t have family or anywhere to go.”

Though they may be undocumented or have tenuous legal status, and could be deported on a whim, those families served by the faith-based nonprofit fill numerous important jobs — and pay taxes — in farm, housekeeping, construction, roofing and meatpacking work that others won’t take, Campos said.

Many of whom, including Campos, worked as essential front-line workers during the COVID-19 pandemic but were excluded from stimulus checks and federal assistance. Campos worked in a hotel taking care of individuals with COVID-19 who had to isolate from family members.

“These are hurtful laws,” she said. “You have to realize these laws that are attacking the immigrant community, they’re attacking those same people that work to keep the state going economically day in and day out. … If (lawmakers pushing forward these laws) care so much about their country, they have to realize the economy of this country is sustained by immigrants.”

Caleb McCullough of The Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com